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Draft vision plan formed for Rice-Larpenteur corridor

Maplewood, Roseville, St. Paul and Ramsey County are holding an Oct. 26 meeting to go over draft plans for the Rice-Larpenteur Gateway Area with the public.
courtesy of Google Street View

Maplewood, Roseville, St. Paul and Ramsey County are all coming together to design improvements to the area of Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue. The area, referred to as the Rice-Larpenteur Gateway Area, spans from County Road B to Arlington Avenue and from McMenemy Street to Dale Street.

“There’s a lot of safety concerns in that area, so I think that’s one of the key points that I keep hearing in this planning process,” said Shann Finwall at the Oct. 9 Maplewood City Council meeting. Finwall is Maplewood’s environmental planner.

“From our collaborative funding agreement that was adopted by the three councils earlier this year, we hired a consultant and have been working on this process since last spring,” she added.

John Slack is the project manager and senior landscape architect for the Rice-Larpenteur Gateway Area Vision Plan, and represents the consulting firm Perkins+Will.

He explained that the project has two planning groups — one that is made up of area residents and one that is made up mostly of city staff and elected officials.

While these groups have primarily been meeting separately, they did join together Oct. 5 to assess the draft vision plan put together by Perkins+Will. Slack noted that the roughly 30 people from the two groups generally liked the direction of the plans, which focus on improving connectivity, redevelopment and public open space. He also noted that the draft plan includes no removal of housing, though it does provide the opportunity to incorporate new housing in the area.

Interested community members can view the draft plans at one final public workshop, which is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 26. It will be held in Community School of Excellence, 270 Larpenteur Ave. W., St. Paul from 6 to 8 p.m.

Comments made during this meeting will help inform the changes made to the draft vision plan before it goes before the three city councils in January 2018.